Reminders Overview: What are @SaneReminders and how do they work?

SaneReminders notify you when an email you sent wasn't responded to by a certain time. It's also an easy way to send a reminder to your future self.

There are 3 different use cases for SaneReminders:

1. Get notified when people don't reply to you. Say you want to follow up on a lead in a week, but only if you don't hear back (this is how most people use it). In this case just send the email as usual and CC or BCC a reminder address.

2. You want to defer processing an email (i.e. put back into your Inbox by a certain time). In this case forward that email TO a reminder address and it will show up at the top of your Inbox at the time you specify.

3. Send a reminder to your future self. Just send an email TO a reminder address and it will magically appear at the top of your Inbox at that time.

How to get notified if people don't reply to you

Put a reminder email address (e.g. tomorrow@sanebox.com, 3days@sanebox.com etc - more on the options below) in the Cc:Bcc: field. SaneBox will track this email and put it back into the top of your Inbox at the time indicated, unless the email has been replied to.

If you want the reminder regardless of whether or not you got a reply, add the word "keep" to the address (e.g. keep.tomorrow@sanebox.com etc)

Example:

Send an email To: my-milk-man@deliveries.com and BCC: Monday.10am@sanebox.com, and if the milk man doesn't reply by Monday at 10am, we will put that email back into your Inbox, so you can resend it and make sure you get your milk. You can then simply click "reply" and remove the SaneReminders stuff at the top of the email. The milk man will feel horrible about missing the delivery.

How to defer processing an email or send a reminder to your future self

If you want to send yourself a reminder or defer processing an email, put the reminder email address (e.g. tomorrow@sanebox.com etc) in the To: field.

Example:

Send an email To: Feb14.2pm@sanebox.com with the following subject: "Buy flowers for my beautiful wife". And your Valentine's Day will be a success.

If an email in your Inbox isn't actionable for 2 more weeks, Forward it to: 2weeks@sanebox.com. It will pop back in your Inbox then.

SaneReminder Addresses

Pretty much anything you can think of will work for a SaneReminder address.

You can combine them -- 1mo3d@sanebox.com means 1 month and 3 days from now.

You can also attach a time to days, weeks and months -- 3days-2.30pm@sanebox.com.

Lastly, you can simply use tomorrow@sanebox.com (which is 24 hours from when you send the email), nextweek@sanebox.com (which is Monday morning at 2am), or nextmonth@sanebox.com (which is the same date in the next month).

2. Day of the week: <weekday>@sanebox.comYou can use the full word or a weekday abbreviations -- sunday@sanebox.com or sun@sanebox.com. Your reminder will arrive at the current time on that day. You can also set the hour if you prefer a different time -- tuesday-9am@sanebox.com

3. Date: <day><month name>@sanebox.com or <month name><day>@sanebox.comYou may use the month abbreviations -- 5.april@sanebox.com or dec.25@sanebox.com.You can set the time as well -- dec31-11.59pm@sanebox.com (so you don't miss that champagne toast)!

4. Time of day: <hour><am or pm>@sanebox.com or <hour>.<minute><am or pm>@sanebox.com

Receive a reminder at particular time in the next 24 hours -- if you send to 5pm@sanebox.com at 10pm then you'll be reminded tomorrow at 5pm; if you send to 10.30pm@sanebox.com then you'll get one in 30 minutes. SaneBox does support a 24 hour clock. 23.30@sanebox.com is the same to us as 11.30pm@SaneBox.com. (Yes, we are respectful of people outside the USA).

5. Keep: <normal-reminder-address>.keep@sanebox.com

Want to send a reminder that can't be cancelled by a reply -- if you send to tomorrow.keep@sanebox.com then you will be reminded tomorrow even if the person you send the email to replies.

Repeating Reminders

Add each or every to your reminder address and we'll keep sending you reminders until you receive a reply or cancel the reminder.

every.day@sanebox.com -- receive a reminder at this time every day

every.week@sanebox.com -- receive a reminder every monday morning

every.thursday@sanebox.com -- receive a reminder every Thursday at this time

every.april5@sanebox.com -- receive a reminder every year on April 5th

every.10th@sanebox.com - receive a reminder on the 10th of every month for paying bills and such

every.first.Wed@sanebox.com - receive a reminder on the first wednesday of every month

Addressing Auto-Complete

To make it even easier, we have common @SaneReminders addresses set up for you to download and import to your email client address book:

Save time by adding one of these templated lists to your email client and you won't have to type them in every time - click the .vcf or .csv link to download.

The @SaneReminders folder

After you create your first reminder, we will create a new folder called @SaneReminders. This will hold a copy of the emails that you have requested a reminder for. Please don't delete these emails.

If you do, we will only be able to send you a generic reminder instead of resending the actual email back to your Inbox. Like all Sane folders, you are welcome to rename @SaneReminders to be anything you want.